CAPSULE FILLING MACHINE

CAPSULE FILLING MACHINE
Blister pack[1] is a term for several types of pre-formed plastic packaging used for small consumer goods, foods, and for pharmaceuticals.

The primary component of a blister pack is a cavity or pocket made from a formable web, usually a thermoformed plastic. This usually has a backing of paperboard or a lidding seal of aluminum foil or plastic. A blister that folds onto itself is often called a clamshell.

Blister packs are useful for protecting products against external factors, such as humidity and contamination for extended periods of time. Opaque blisters also protect light-sensitive products against UV rays.

Uses[edit]
Blister packs are used to package products such as toys, hardware, medication, etc.

Many blister packaging machines use heat and pressure via a die to form the cavity or pocket from a roll or sheet of plastic. In recent years, improvements in cold forming, specifically allowing steeper depth/angles during forming, which minimizes the amount of material used for each cavity—have helped this technology increase. The main advantages of the plastic-based blister pack are its more compact size compared to cold formed aluminum and its transparency to see the product.

Unit dose packaging of pharmaceuticals[edit]

CAPSULE FILLING MACHINE
Tablets in a blister
Blister packs are commonly used as unit-dose packaging for pharmaceutical tablets, capsules or lozenges. Blister packs can provide barrier protection for shelf life requirements, and a degree of tamper resistance. In the US, blister packs are mainly used for packing physician samples of drug products or for over-the-counter (OTC) products in the pharmacy. In other parts of the world, blister packs are the main packaging type since pharmacy dispensing and re-packaging are not common. A series of blister cavities is sometimes called a blister card or blister strip as well as blister pack. The difference between a strip pack and blister pack is that a strip pack does not have thermo-formed or cold formed cavities; the strip pack is formed around the tablet at a time when it is dropped to the sealing area between sealing moulds. In some parts of the world the pharmaceutical blister pack is known as a push-through pack (PTP), an accurate description of two key properties (i) the lidding foil is brittle, making it possible to press the product out while breaking the lidding foil and (ii) a semi-rigid formed cavity being sufficiently collapsible to be able to dispense the tablet or capsule by means of pressing it out with the thumb. Breaking the lidding foil with a fingernail for the appropriate tablet will make the pressing out easier.

The main advantages of unit-dose blister packs over other methods of packing pharmaceutical products are the assurance of product/packaging integrity (including shelf-life) of each individual dose and the ability to create a compliance pack or calendar pack by printing the days of the week above each dose.

CAPSULE FILLING MACHINE
Blister packs are created by means of a form-fill-seal process at the pharmaceutical company or designated contract packer. A form-fill-seal process means that the blister pack is created from rolls of flat sheet or film, filled with the pharmaceutical product and closed (sealed) on the same equipment. Such equipment is called a blisterline. There are two types of blister machine’ design: rotary and flat-plate, depending on the mechanism for sealing the lidding foil.[2][3]

Consumer goods[edit]

A typical blister-packaged consumer good
Other types of blister packs consist of carded packaging where goods such as toys, hardware, and electrical items are contained between a specially made paperboard card and clear pre-formed plastic such as PVC. The consumer can visually examine the product through the transparent plastic. The plastic shell is vacuum-formed around a mold so it can contain the item snugly. The card is colored and designed depending on the item inside, and the PVC is affixed to the card using heat and pressure to activate an adhesive (heat seal coating) on the blister card. The adhesive is strong enough so that the pack may hang on a peg, but weak enough so that the package can be easily opened (in theory). Sometimes, with large items, the card (cold seal card) has a perforated window for access.

CAPSULE FILLING MACHINE
Clamshell[edit]
Main article: Clamshell (container)
A hinged blister is known as a clamshell, used for a variety of products. It can be used as a security package to deter package pilferage for small high-value items, such as consumer electronics. It consists of one sheet folded over onto itself and sometimes fused at the edges. They can be securely heat sealed, making them difficult to open by hand to deter tampering. A pair of scissors or a sharp knife is often required to open them (although these are often sold in similar packages).[4] Care must be used to safely open some of these packages, as opening it without care can result in injury; 6,000 Americans are sent to the emergency room each year by injuries suffered in opening such packages.[5][6] Wrap rage is sometimes the result.

CAPSULE FILLING MACHINE
Medical blister trays[edit]
Medical blister trays differ from pharmaceutical blister packs in that these are not push-through packs. The thermoformed base web is made of a thicker plastic sheet, generally between 500 and 1000 µ and can not be collapsed, thus forming a solid tray. The lidding film provides a peel-open feature and is generally porous to allow sterilization (such as the Dupont medical Tyvek material). Such medical blister packs are used for sterile medical devices, used in hospitals.

CAPSULE FILLING MACHINE
Production[edit]
Thermoforming[edit]
In the case of thermoforming, a plastic film or sheet is unwound from the reel and guided though a pre-heating station on the blister line. The temperature of the pre-heating plates (upper and lower plates) is such that the plastic will soften and become pliable. The warm plastic will then arrive in a forming station where a large pressure (4 to 8 bar) will form the blister cavity into a negative mold. The mold is cooled such that the plastic becomes rigid again and maintains its shape when removed from the mold. In case of difficult shapes, the warm film will be physically pushed down partially into the cavity by a “plug-assist” feature. Plug-assist results in a blister cavity with more uniform wall distribution and is typically used when the cavity size and shape is larger than a small tablets and capsules.

CAPSULE FILLING MACHINE
Cold forming[edit]
In the case of cold forming, an aluminum-based laminate film is simply pressed into a mold by means of a stamp. The aluminum will be elongated and maintain the formed shape. In the industry these blisters are called cold form foil (CFF) blisters. The principal advantage of cold form foil blisters is that the use of aluminum offers a near complete barrier for water and oxygen, allowing an extended product expiry date. The principal disadvantages of cold form foil blisters are: the slower speed of production compared to thermoforming; the lack of transparency of the package (a therapy compliance disadvantage); and the larger size of the blister card (aluminum can not be formed with near 90 degree angles).[citation needed] In cold forming aluminium is offering a near complete barrier for water and oxygen, allowing an extended product expiry date.
CAPSULE FILLING MACHINE